Onions - nothings wrong with the herc - its just not designed for the sort of operations needed to rotate troops between UK and Theatre. Charter airlines deliver to a convenient airhead in the ME, and then we use the Herc to move them into theatre itself. Using hercs to go from UK would take far too long (multiple fuelling stops) and use up airframe fatigue life which could be better employed elsewhere. At the end of the day the herc is a local mud mover and not a long distance troop carrier.

By the way, MOD didn't pay directly for the costs - this Â£85m counts as Net Additional Cost to Military Operations (NACMO) and is funded directly from HMT and not the MOD budget.

In the News of the World today I read some thing that I think needs urgent action. In a column written by "The Snitch" I found the following:-

According to the MOD, between 2007 and 2009 it spent Â£85 million on private charter flights to transport armed forces personnel to and from operations. Small question: What's wrong with a Hercules?

Maybe some of you guys and gals who have had to use this means of transport would like to e-mail "The Snitch" with your reaction to his crass staement. His e-mail address is:- [email protected]

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Its a piece of sh*t to be tranported on that saps the will to live if confined to for a few hours. Don't forget to turn in the correct direction in the event of an emergency or you may recieve a close shave.

I've only been on a hercy bird once, and that was enough for me.
Flew from Ascension islands back to UK and to be honest it was not the most luxurious comfortable flight I have ever been on.
I could still hear the engines three days after I got off the plane

What an odd piece from the stable of 'News' papers that supports 'our Boys and Girls in Uniform'. :roll:
So those going on a tour in hot and dusty places shouldn't have any comfort prior to living in dangerous and uncomfortable conditions that most journos would even at the mention of run a mile from?
Waste of space c&@$

Where did this guy get his lame-brained, ill-informed ideas? How many Hercs does he think the RAF has? Certainly not enough to fulfil all their operational commitments in two war zones and shuttle hundreds of service personnel backwards and forwards between the UK and the Middle East each week. As for the handful of 30-year old Tristars, they're lucky to get any off the ground.

I know Maggie flew down to the Falklands in a sound-proofed container incorporating all mod cons on board a Herc but that was before the runway could handle conventional airliners. They're fine for ferrying troops for operational purposes and carrying cargo but sitting for any length of time on those webbing seats with the metal frame cutting the circulation under your thighs, alternately freezing and boiling while being deafened for the following three days, is no joke.

I've suffered a few long-distance flights in Hercs but after a senior RN doc flew out to the Gulf in one c.1988, he submitted a report to the MoD condemning its use for long-haul passengers as 'cruel and unusual punishment', not to mention an ideal cause of DVT; I wonder what happened to it. Hercs are still used for ferrying PAX to and from air heads in-theatre but charter flights are the only practical solution for the long-distance trips.